Ramona Flower being the main love interest of Scott Pilgrim and where the band “The Ramona Flowers” got their name.
Another Bristol band on my radar. The last of which was the 4-piece, Hunny Buzz.
The Ramona Flowers are, however, coming in with a different vibe. An Electronic vibe, but with a rocky edge. An attempt at White Lies mixed with Jarrod Leto’s Thirty Seconds To Mars maybe?
I had read that they were likened to a “Kid A-era” Radiohead. And whilst I strongly disagree with this statement, I do agree with them being likened to the likes of Imagine Dragons and the 1975 (at times) with a U2, Bono-Esque voicing. And hey, I’m a fan of the 1975.
Listening to their latest EP Up All Night with none other than the legendary Nile Rodgers, its safe to say that this is certainly a radio friendly track. And their album Strangers, released in 2018, has some definite catchy tracks and some Daft Punk style grooves. No wonder Mr Rodgers was on board.
Any ways, This Friday 14th sees the fourpiece release a cover of MGMT’s 2007 hit KIDS. And sure, how could you forget this summer buzzn track? Especially the music video where a kid is being tortured by monsters, which they received some backlash from. The comments for the video on YouTube have even been turned off from what I seen. But don’t worry, they released a “Behind the scenes” video which showed the kid having fun with the monsters too. Phewww!
The Ramona Flowers are following in the footsteps of many before them who have covered this track too. The Kooks gave a triple J acoustic rendition with some beautiful harmonies on the chorus and Luke Pritchard’s iconic voice brought it to another level. And then we have one of my favs from back in the day, Cage The Elephant, who took a completely different approach to the track with some half time beats on the versus. Starting out almost sounding like Iggy Pops Passenger. This cover took it to another place in the ether.
The Ramona Flowers have kept it very similar to the original, perhaps giving us more of an 80’s electro vibe, but none the less, bringing this track back to the attention of a newer Gen-Z? fan base and keeping the summer vibes going.
Produced by Chris Zane who has worked with some decent creators in the past such as Mumford and Sons, Nelly Furtado and Passion Pit.
Star rating Below
Reviewer – Carl Foran